August 30, 2012 10:06 PM CDTAugust 30, 2012 10:08 PM CDTGosselin: Cowboys are right team at right time for SMU’s Beasley

Gosselin: Cowboys are right team at right time for SMU’s Beasley

3/21

Vernon Bryant/Staff Photographer

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Stephen McGee (7) prepares to throw the ball in a game against the Miami Dolphins during the first half of a preseason game at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington on August 29, 2012.

SMU’s June Jones knew slot position was made for Cole Beasley

June Jones had conversations during SMU’s off-season
with two employees of the Jerry Jones empire whom he knows quite well.

The first came in April, the second in August. The first conversation
involved Cowboys receivers coach Jimmy Robinson. The second involved rookie
Cowboys receiver Cole Beasley.

“He’s you,” Jones told Robinson in April as part of the sales pitch for his
former SMU receiver Beasley leading up to the draft.

“Get your [butt] back in camp,” Jones told Beasley in August after he walked
out on the Cowboys.

Obviously both men heard what the SMU coach had to say. The Cowboys signed
Beasley as a free agent after the draft. And Beasley returned to Cowboys
training camp after a 48-hour absence. Now the Cowboys have a budding slot
receiver with many of the same qualities as, well, his receivers coach.

Robinson was an undersized but productive receiver at Georgia Tech who slid
to the 15th round of the 1975 draft because of his diminutive stature. He didn’t
make it that summer with the Atlanta Falcons but did hook on with the New York
Giants in 1976.

Robinson scored the first Giants touchdown in the inaugural game at the
Meadowlands that year and wound up spending five seasons in the NFL, catching 85
passes. For a player just 5-9, 170 pounds, Robinson overachieved, having also
been named to Georgia Tech’s all-time team.

Jones got to know Robinson when he was the offensive coordinator of the
Falcons in 1991 and Robinson was his receivers coach. Jones realized if Beasley
was to have a chance in the NFL at his size (5-8, 177) and lack of draft
standing, he would need to find the right situation, the right team and the
right time.

So Jones spoke with Robinson.

“I told him Beas was Jimmy Robinson circa 1978,” Jones said. “Jimmy was the
same guy — quick, fast and would catch everything. He was almost the same size
as Beas. Jimmy knew he could find a place for Beas.”

And Jones hated to see Beasley give up that place when he decided his heart
was no longer in football and left the Cowboys camp on Aug. 3. Jones reached
Beasley by phone at the airport on his way home.

“He told me if I don’t go back, I’d regret it for the rest of my life,”
Beasley said.

“I’m glad he went back,” Jones said.

So are the Cowboys. Beasley shared the team lead this preseason with 10
receptions for 144 yards, including 104 of them in a game with the Chargers. He
gives Tony Romo a viable slot option.

But Beasley struck a nerve in the off-season when he said he was faster and
more versatile than New England’s Pro Bowl wide receiver and fellow smurf Wes
Welker. Such smack talk is out of bounds for an undrafted rookie.

“That cockiness and that arrogance make him who he is,” Jones said. “Those
type of guys all have that attitude because of their size. They all have to
prove something, and that attitude has allowed him to play the game at a higher
level.”

Production exaggerates that swagger. Beasley caught 255 career passes at SMU
and knows the pro game inside out. That’s the benefit of playing for Jones, who
spent time in the NFL as a quarterback and head coach in addition to his time as
an offensive coordinator.

“He plays football in the 20-yard area in a 4.3 and catches everything,”
Jones said. “He understands the offense and can read coverages. He’s been
reading coverages for four years. Whatever they’re asking him to read there, he
can do it. And he gets open.”

Now it appears Beasley will get the chance to get open during the regular
season for the Cowboys. You can put the phone down now, June.

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About Rick Gosselin

MOST UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCE ON THE JOB:
Sitting at the hotel bar with Jerry Jones that night in Orlando, Fla., in March 1994 when he decided he'd had enough of Jimmy Johnson as coach of the Cowboys.

SOMETHING PEOPLE DON'T KNOW ABOUT ME:I played hockey for a media all-star team in Detroit and once scored a goal against the Detroit Red Wings Old-Timers in a charity game at Olympia. As a high school player, I once scored a hat trick in a game at the Olympia. Love those "Original Six" buildings.

IF I HAD TWO SPARE HOURS, I WOULD:Take a golf lesson and learn how to hit a driver.

MOST MEMORABLE SPORTING EVENT I'VE COVERED:Impossible to pick just one, so I'll give you five, in no particular order:
- 1, My first Super Bowl - X between the Cowboys and Steelers.
- 2, 1983 NCAA basketball championship game between North Carolina State and Houston.
- 3, 1984 Orange Bowl between Miami and Nebraska.
- 4, 1971 baseball All-Star Game in Detroit, where all the future Hall of Famers homered and Reggie Jackson banged one off the light tower.
- 5, Speedskater Bonnie Blair's world-record sprints at 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.
- Honorable mention: Troy Aikman's first college start as a freshman at Oklahoma against Kansas. (He lost.)

Hometown: Detroit

Education: Graduated from Michigan State in 1972, then spent two years working news for United Press International in Detroit, two years working for UPI sports in New York, nine years working as UPI's Midlands sports editor in Kansas City, four years as Chiefs/NFL beat reporter for the Kansas City Star, two years as Cowboys writer for The Dallas Morning News and 12 years as the NFL writer for The News.